Seattle Forrest

In January I started a thread inviting everyone to come out and ride in the PNW. Be glad you didn't listen.

I haven't been on the bike in a week. There are drastically fewer cyclists (or people at all) out, maybe 1/3 of them have a handkerchief tied over their face. I finally broke down and got a mask.

Ghazmh

Aubergine 

datlas 

How does this compare to Beijing?

Colnago Mixte

It's officially "Worse Than Beijing", according to the graphic.

Y'all have apparently got some really serious tokers in several regions of your state. Who could have foreseen that legalization would be quite this bad for the environment?

Welcome to my world, Central CA consistently has THE worst air in the country.

Seattle Forrest

Ours is more than 3x worse and continuing to deteriorate. Tonight will be "humans shouldn't be here" levels.

Enough smoke to blot out the evening sun the last two days.

Fine ash in the air.

God I wish I could breathe some clean Beijing air right now.

HTupolev

Yeah, I noticed the ash this morning. Just like last summer.

TrojanHorse

You *are* breathing clean Beijing air right now, just be glad its not as permanent as Beijing's air.

HTupolev

If we're going by AQI, the current conditions in Seattle are pretty poor even by Beijing standards.

Cyclist0108

Oy.

I will stop complaining. (We are at 42 at the moment.)





vs.

Seattle Forrest

Last year the smoke arrived around Aug 1 and departed in September or October. This year it arrived around Aug 1 and while we've had periods of better and worse, it has been a permanent fixture since it arrived. People who live here - not just Seattle but all across the west - are breathing in high levels of particulate matter for months at a time. This is what it's like now. There will be smoke blankets from massive wildfires every summer for the rest of my life.

JohnnyCyclist

A number of years ago, I was in Las Vegas in the Fall. There was a 'funny smell' in the air which I attributed to wildfires in CA. If my memory is correct, it hung around for a few days, but left before I did.

I live in PA. A few weeks ago, I stepped outside one morning and was greeted with the same 'funny smell'. It was there for only that morning - when I left the office building in the afternoon it was gone.

So, if it is wildfire smoke (and not my breath blowing back in my face ), it's extending a loooooooong way.

Cyclist0108

It has been detected in New York city.

TrojanHorse

Believe me, you have my empathy. We're a little luckier than you because of the prevailing wind patterns in SoCal but the incessant wildfires are awful.

Bah Humbug

Cheer up! Eventually there will be no trees left to burn.

ingo

Calgary had 10 days in a row with air quality in the beyond extreme category. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was 16, with 10 being hazardous for a healthy person to even be outside. The charity Ride to Conquer Cancer was cancelled. Visibility was under 1 km, but it was even worse in BC where highways are closed due to lack of visibility.

badger1

Sad. Here in SW Ontario we are used to horrendous AQ ratings, but in recent years things have actually improved. Today, for example, we are at 2 on the Gov. Canada 1-to-10 scale.

Sad, because my 'home' grounds are the SW coast (Vancouver Island) of B.C. My sister reports the same as you (op). May have to re-think my retirement plans.

2cam16

My daughter has been there for a couple of months on an internship. She was getting over a cough but this week has slowed her down because of the smoke. She said it's pretty bad even inside their building.

Seattle Forrest

I was going to retire to the Methow Valley, in central Washington's Cascade mountains. There's a lot of hiking, some good MTB trails, great road riding, and in the winter it's one of the best places to ski cross country. I even had a house picked out, although buying it has been a few years out. Anyway, it's inside the evacuation zone, and the AQI there is literally off the charts.

I'm feeling pretty rudderless now. I spent half a lifetime figuring out how and where I can be happy, and it's all changed so quickly.

Edit to add: Here's what Western Washington looks like from space.

arizonamed

I've been here five years now and the short dreary winter days never bothered me one bit, but this smoke is making me really freakin depressed.

Lazyass

Seattle has many issues.

Seattle Forrest

I'm not surprised.

kbarch

Wild.
When I was growing up, I always associated the PNW with clean, fresh air, and polluted air with the Midwest and Northeast - and Los Angeles of course. I still can't get over how clear and blue the skies frequently are here in New York City, and how rare it is that the haze is bad - don't think I've ever seen smog since I've been here...

Cyclist0108

I went to Crater Lake NP a month ago. It was so smokey, we couldn't see the island. As we were getting ready to leave, enough smoke blew out that it encouraged us to do the ride. Klamath Falls, where we stayed the night before, was covered with smoke. The drive out the canyon toward Roseburg was very smokey. I was going to spend a few more days in Oregon riding, but I gave up and drove home. The fire in Redding started the same day I drove through it, so that smoke pre-dated the worst of the fires. It seems like every time I drive through Oregon there is some major fire event and large portions of the state are covered in smoke. Same with Northern CA.

Meanwhile Agent Orange says climate change is fake science and the fires are caused by environmentalist terrorists.

We are totally screwed.

badger1

Ugh. "Rudderless" is exactly right. I'm still working (past 'normal retirement age'), but have longed to go 'home' since I left in the early '90s. Never intended to stay out here.